markelshark

I got this last time and even with low expectations I was disappointed. Basically I knew I had a German Shepherd mix and I was hoping the kit would tell me what the "mix" part is, or at least point me in the right direction. Instead it just said "German Shepherd" for one parent and a giant question mark (literally, a picture of a question mark) for the other parent. It then listed a bunch of other breeds that it said "didn't meet the minimum threshold for significance". Thanks a lot! Save your money, buy your dog a bone and yourself a sandwich - that way you'll both actually get something out of your $.

samira

markelshark wrote:I got this last time and even with low expectations I was disappointed. Basically I knew I had a German Shepherd mix and I was hoping the kit would tell me what the "mix" part is, or at least point me in the right direction. Instead it just said "German Shepherd" for one parent and a giant question mark (literally, a picture of a question mark) for the other parent. It then listed a bunch of other breeds that it said "didn't meet the minimum threshold for significance". Thanks a lot! Save your money, buy your dog a bone and yourself a sandwich - that way you'll both actually get something out of your $.

conanthelibrarian

rubysoho

markelshark wrote:I got this last time and even with low expectations I was disappointed. Basically I knew I had a German Shepherd mix and I was hoping the kit would tell me what the "mix" part is, or at least point me in the right direction. Instead it just said "German Shepherd" for one parent and a giant question mark (literally, a picture of a question mark) for the other parent. It then listed a bunch of other breeds that it said "didn't meet the minimum threshold for significance". Thanks a lot! Save your money, buy your dog a bone and yourself a sandwich - that way you'll both actually get something out of your $.

Really? That's so disappointing. I have been wanting to do this forever, and almost jumped in for two. I'd be pissed if I got paperwork back with a giant question mark.

conanthelibrarian

firefighter5325

I just ordered one of these off eBay for 64 they are 90 in petsmart. We have a shelter dog who is two and me and the wife are hoping this will give some info for any health risk that may be in his future. I just wish this would have been on here 2 days ago.

Sportsdad7

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. No offense to WOOT. This is a garbage test. We had our dog tested wanting to know the father. We had papers on the mother, a pure bred border collie. Our dog looks like a border collie and has a trait unique to border collies. The results?

ben4682

markelshark wrote:I got this last time and even with low expectations I was disappointed.

These tests are limited, but they can still be useful. I did a test with my dog and it came back Chow, which was obvious, and Shar Pei, which was not at all obvious (but which I now see as true). But, like yours, it also had a question mark... I assumed she had German shepherd in her, and still suspect she does (or some sort of large non-German shepherd). So... it's not useless, just maybe not ready for prime time.

kellieak

This is bogus. I waited for a couple years to test my mixed breed guy, hoping they would have lots of breeds by the time I tested. My dog is light reddish tan & mostly white, very long hair & tail, & weighs about 63 lbs. He came back as lots of question marks for recent generations, but strong lines of bulldog and some smaller skinny short-haired retriever-like dog. He displays pretty much 0% of the traits of the breeds they came up with.

zambonismom

kellieak wrote:This is bogus. I waited for a couple years to test my mixed breed guy, hoping they would have lots of breeds by the time I tested. My dog is light reddish tan & mostly white, very long hair & tail, & weighs about 63 lbs. He came back as lots of question marks for recent generations, but strong lines of bulldog and some smaller skinny short-haired retriever-like dog. He displays pretty much 0% of the traits of the breeds they came up with.

I don't recommend this at all.

I did a DNA test on my rescue dog from BioPet Vet Labs that I purchased from Petco several years ago. The results were terrific, giving me percentages of the top 4 breeds and traits of each. It was right on the mark! I'd recommend getting that test if it's still available!

brasssong

birdoprey5

I bought this last time and was happy with the results. We have 2 dogs, one is a clear classic Beagle, the other looked like a beagle but with coloring I never saw and a rougher fur then any beagle I'd ever petted. DNA test came back, he is 100% Beagle but a US "Field" Beagle rather than a US "Show" Beagle like I had been used to. Makes sense as this beagle came from a farm and has a much stronger hunting/tracking/howling instinct than the show beagle.

thesmithgirl

I did the Wisdom Panel blood test (not the cheek swab) a few years ago on my two mixed breed dogs, both rescues so I had no idea of parentage. Both results came back validating exactly what breeds I suspected about each dog. Knowing the breed mix of one of my dogs has helped my vet diagnose a rare health issue that one of the breeds is prone to - so in my case, it was money well spent.

PocketBrain

markelshark wrote:I got this last time and even with low expectations I was disappointed. Basically I knew I had a German Shepherd mix and I was hoping the kit would tell me what the "mix" part is, or at least point me in the right direction. Instead it just said "German Shepherd" for one parent and a giant question mark (literally, a picture of a question mark) for the other parent. It then listed a bunch of other breeds that it said "didn't meet the minimum threshold for significance". Thanks a lot! Save your money, buy your dog a bone and yourself a sandwich - that way you'll both actually get something out of your $.

That's 1/2 German Shepherd, 1/2 "Travelin' man." A mutt that's so mixed, it's got everything from Rat Terrier to Bull Mastiff, and maybe some raccoon and squirrel to round them out.

Thanks to up-to-the-minute tracking, I don't track my package so much as stalk it.

clover122221

I'm a veterinarian. About year ago, there was a massive study done in which veterinary professionals (vets and vet techs) were asked to identify what they thought were the major breed(s) involved by looking at pictures of 20 dogs.

These dogs were also wisdom tested.

I believe there was one case where the test and the veterinarians agreed. It was a dalmation mix. Otherwise, the test came up with crazy answers - a dog that had short legs (eg obviously basset/corgi/dachshund) came back as like SharPei/German Shepherd.

Embrace your mixed breed dog, and if you're worried it might have a problem (like a Cavalier's congenital heart disease or a Shepherd's hips) - just ask your vet about it.

KickedMyDog

markelshark wrote:I got this last time and even with low expectations I was disappointed. Basically I knew I had a German Shepherd mix and I was hoping the kit would tell me what the "mix" part is, or at least point me in the right direction. Instead it just said "German Shepherd" for one parent and a giant question mark (literally, a picture of a question mark) for the other parent. It then listed a bunch of other breeds that it said "didn't meet the minimum threshold for significance". Thanks a lot! Save your money, buy your dog a bone and yourself a sandwich - that way you'll both actually get something out of your $.

That was because either mommy or daddy dog was a extremely mixed breed which could not be fully determined. Or that mommy dog was a whore.

scarlettesong

My husband and I adopted a "Cocker Spaniel Mix" from the local SPCA and wanted to know if that was correct, so we bought one of these. People believed she was practically any other spaniel type because of her freckles and coloring, so this confirmed one parent was a pure-bred cocker spaniel and the other was a mutt. We didn't get a question mark on ours. It showed back 3 generations and they managed to possibly ID two grandparents and a great-grandparent, but nothing else. We were happy enough with the results and I just grabbed another to ID our newest little hound/lab mix. We're hoping to find out what KIND of hound because he's shorter and longer than we predicted.

ElGuappo

And I notice they have "professional" and "2.0" versions, which makes me wonder what the difference is in the data base (or if it is simply a more rigorous analysis).

But if they are using a database compiled from CanMap (just a guess) then while their data may be limited at this point, they should be able to tell me how much coyote is in my dog, at least make a guess. If any Mars folks are reading, please let me know if this is possible. It is a curiosity thing.

spokesnwheels

We did two of these tests for two of our dogs, and the results were crazy, but VERY likely! At a benefit we attended, they sold these tests, and the results were presented at the benefit party. It was so fun to see the mixture of breeds from dog owners, and yes they were MOSTLY believable.

I wondered where the corkscrew tail came from on our pitbull mix, and it answered the question - 5% English bull dog. Yep!

scootchy

Did this for our rescue dog. No question mark. Identified the contributing breeds to our dog and after reading up on these breeds we have a much clearer understanding about her behavior. It was so helpful. If I rescued another dog I'd do this test again in a heartbeat.

SPACERAT100

DO NOT recommend. I got this off amazon. My dog looks EXACTLY like a German Sheppard with ears that don't stand up. The vet thought she was pure bred with bad ears or a lab/shep mix. According to this test she is a beagle/boxer despite being entirely the wrong body shape for either of those breeds and having the coloration of a german sheppard. According to the test she has 0% detectable german sheppard.

sportschick

I bought this two years ago at PetsMart and had great results. I thought my pound puppy was a border collie mix. According to the DNA results my dog's mother was a 50/50 mix of German Shepherd and Pekinese! That's a crazy combination. The father was reported to be all "guard" dog with mostly German Shepherd, but also Rottweiler, Doberman and other breeds. My dog didn't have any collie in her. I think its worth the $40 to learn what your dog is.

CarynG

I bought a couple of these the last time WOOT had them so my son and I could test our "strays" that adopted us. We were a little surprised with one of the dog's results but very pleased with the results and both tests seem spot on. I'm happy enough with the test that I just bought another test for my other dog.
IMPORTANT: Before you swab your dog's cheek, you need to kennel your dog for 3-4 hours and make sure they don 't have anything to eat, drink, or chew on. You also need to make sure you don't get your hands all over and contaminate the swab with your DNA. All of this will skew the results!

themcnasty

FYI, if the animal shelter tells you the dog is definitely a boxer mix, they are trying to help you keep your dog from being taken and killed if you visit a place that bans pits and bulldogs. My dog is American pit-bull terrier and black lab, the paperwork says lab mix for a reason.

Don't change the breed on your vet paperwork, even if the test tells you the dog isn't a boxer.

pizzabot

My wife and I did this almost two years ago for our dog Roxy. She is a very lean dog, about 40 lbs. Besides the gray that is now in her coat, she would get mistaken for a young German Shepherd. So when we got the results back and there was no German Shepherd, we were a bit surprised. I always knew she was a mutt but didn't know anything about her parents or other history. I've had her for 11 years now, since she was a puppy, and she is the best dog I have ever had.

The link below is to the results we got back, along with a couple pictures of Roxy. For $50 I would do it again if we had not already but like others have said take the results with a grain of salt.

elitemrp

markelshark wrote:I got this last time and even with low expectations I was disappointed. Basically I knew I had a German Shepherd mix and I was hoping the kit would tell me what the "mix" part is, or at least point me in the right direction. Instead it just said "German Shepherd" for one parent and a giant question mark (literally, a picture of a question mark) for the other parent. It then listed a bunch of other breeds that it said "didn't meet the minimum threshold for significance". Thanks a lot! Save your money, buy your dog a bone and yourself a sandwich - that way you'll both actually get something out of your $.

I had the opposite results.

I have a 140lbs large dog that I always assumed was a mix of German Shepherd, Yellow Lab and Great Dane.

Found out he's an Australian Shepherd, Boxer, Cardigan Welsh Corgi and Entlebucher Mountain Dog mix.

3 of those breeds are tiny and even WP said the estimated weight of my dog would be 41 - 66 lbs.

I suppose it could be wrong but after looking at the breeds I can see the features. Especially the face that looks like a giant corgi but I never really noticed before.

spoonyspork

I'm not planning on buying this, but it's worth noting you sometimes really CAN NOT tell what your dog's mixes are based on their looks. I have a friend who knows her dog's breeding back 4 generations (Mother is Chow/German Shepherd/Great Dane and father is pure Great Dane), and she looks 100% black Labrador Retriever. She's had breed show professionals comment on how perfect an example of a black lab her dog is, and why doesn't she show her 'like a black lab' (she does non-breed specific showmanship and agility), etc. She also has her half-brother (same mix except the father was Chow/Great Dane) who looks like a pure German Shepherd despite being mostly Chow and Great Dane - the only hint he's not pure is that his tail curls up instead of down, and he's pretty giant even for a German Shepherd. I had a Jack Russel/Dachshund (again; both parents pure bred) whom looked exactly like a smallish beagle. So you get weird results on your mixed breed? Your mixed breed probably has weird parentage.

MITCHELLWOOT

ElGuappo

clover122221 wrote:I'm a veterinarian. About year ago, there was a massive study done in which veterinary professionals (vets and vet techs) were asked to identify what they thought were the major breed(s) involved by looking at pictures of 20 dogs.

These dogs were also wisdom tested.

I believe there was one case where the test and the veterinarians agreed. It was a dalmation mix. Otherwise, the test came up with crazy answers - a dog that had short legs (eg obviously basset/corgi/dachshund) came back as like SharPei/German Shepherd.

Embrace your mixed breed dog, and if you're worried it might have a problem (like a Cavalier's congenital heart disease or a Shepherd's hips) - just ask your vet about it.

Pass.

The study was "Comparison of Visual and DNA Breed Identification of Dogs and Inter-Observer Reliability" in the AJSR. The results can interpreted two ways; one criticizes the method used by Wisdom as insufficient and misleading, the other that visual identification based on preconceptions and heuristics is insufficient and misleading.

I tend to think both have validity but a third and very important issue arises when customers start to compare their results; their collection methods may not be as controlled as they think, leading to contamination and less than valid results in some cases.

But very good point, I've known good vets who understand working dogs and their experience and knowledge can't be replaced by a machine.

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